A Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) can be configured in a number of ways, including a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) per service configuration and a VLAN per subscriber configuration. A typical implementation of a VLAN per service model 10 is illustrated in FIG. 1. The network 10 includes one or more Optical Line Terminations (OLT) 11 and one or more Optical Network Terminations (ONT) 12 (also termed an Optical Network Unit (ONU)) connected through fiber 13 to the OLTs 11. The ONTs 12 interface with Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) 14 through a User/Network Interface (UNI) 15. The CPE 14 may be any of a number of communications devices including telephone, mobile telephone, WAP enabled devices, computer terminals, routers, and any equivalents thereof. In a VLAN per service configuration, a VLAN per service is configured on a network interface of the OLT 11. In the OLT 11 data from multiple ONT User/Network Interface (UNI) ports 15 is bridged onto the per service VLANs through one or more virtual bridging instances 16. In the present example, a VLAN for data 17, Voice over IP (VOIP) 18 and video 19 are shown, though it will be apparent to the person skilled in the art that other VLANs can be provided for additional services. Since a data UNI port 15 of the ONT 12 can support multiple services a service selection function needs to make sure that data from different services is separated by the ONT 12 and sent to the OLT 11 on the fiber 13 in the Port-ID (or group of port-ID's) associated with that service. For clarity, the ONTs shown in FIG. 1 Error! Reference source not found. are illustrated with a single data UNI port 15, though it will be apparent to the person skilled in the art that the ONTs can have multiple data UNI ports, in which case each data UNI port on that ONT is treated as its own entity.
A data UNI port on an ONT can be deployed in trusted or untrusted mode. In trusted mode the VLAN and p-bit markings and VLAN-id received on the data UNI port are consider correct and are retained. The ONT can select a port-id based on the received p-bit and this port-id is mapped by the OLT to one of the defined service bridges. In short the service selection is determined by the CPE marking.
In untrusted mode the ONT strips the VLAN tag (both VLAN-id and p-bits) received from the CPE 14 and generates the VLAN-tag towards the VLAN based on configured or default parameters for all the traffic received. In other words in untrusted mode all data on a data-UNI port is considered part of a single service.
To implement the VLAN per service model for untrusted data UNI ports the ONT needs to perform a service selection function. In some Broadband Passive Optical Networks (BPON) this problem was solved by using a single self learning bridging instance in the ONT for all services and relying on selection of the service based on the learned MAC address of the service edge router. Although this is a workable solution it does have some major drawbacks. In the learning bridge model broadcast messages and unknown destination messages are flooded on all service VLANS, and are forwarded to all service providers. Because of this lack of full separation of traffic, the solution only works if all involved network elements and servers can be fully trusted and are correctly configured. One of the biggest benefits of the self-learning bridge approach is that no on-the-fly configuration for service selection filters is needed.
In many GPON ONTs, the self learning bridging function is not available. An alternative solution is therefore to configure the ONT with service selection filters which can provide the correct and full traffic separation that is needed. However, in many GPON deployments the ONT is fully managed by the OLT through a standardized GPON management protocol OMCI. To introduce configuration of the service selection filters either extensions to OMCI need to be introduced or another management interface to the ONT needs to be provided.
Therefore what is required is a system, method and computer readable medium that can provide service selection for a GPON ONT running in untrusted mode.